Why Sunday School? {Lois Ormsby}

Sunday school hour – it brings delight to the little learners, but to some of the bigger learners, anxiety sets in when we consider making it a priority. I think it is easy for us to see why kids love Sunday school so much, for most Sunday schools capitalize on fun things like Bible memory prizes, attendance charts, and review games. Kids are given every incentive to attend! When we get to be adults, however, we can be left wondering why exactly Sunday school is such a big deal.

The first thing we need to understand and settle in our minds is this: we don’t attend Sunday school to serve ourselves. We attend Sunday school to glorify God! Please do not attend Sunday school “because my pastor will be worried about me if I don’t” or “because my friends are used to me coming”. Faithfulness to God’s house should be a given for a child of the King. In being faithful to the weekly time Sunday school requires, we find that this class structure affords us with so many “extras” that a normal worship service does not offer!

Most churches have classes for all ages – for example, our adult classes at my church include Young Adults, Couples, Ladies’, Men’s, and Spanish. Sunday school is a great place for specific, in-depth, and age-appropriate studies. You can take time to explore a topic for several weeks without feeling the pressure of the clock. Question and answer time can be a weekly thing, allowing for group discussion and exploration of the Bible together. Sunday school is a perfect place for discipling believers.

Sunday school is also a fabulous tool for building relationships with your church family. The feel in the class is usually a bit more relaxed. Perhaps you have a time of sharing prayer requests or praise testimonies, helping everyone keep up with each other’s lives. When you are in a room with just 15 people versus all 150 people that might attend your church, you find it a little bit easier to say hi to someone. Attending weekly gives you the chance to get to know each other better. With time, you acquire that feeling of camaraderie that is felt – you are like a little team, serving Jesus and growing in Him together. Some adult Sunday school classes also maximize the fellowship factor by having group activities outside of the normal Sunday school hour!

Your Sunday school teacher has a special place in his/her heart for you. He prays for you, thinks about how to encourage you, and ponders ways to be a blessing to you. A Sunday school teacher automatically feels a level of responsibility and watch care for his students – he wants to see you do well in life as you walk in the ways of the Lord. Once upon a time, he sat as a student in someone else’s Sunday school…then one day he recognized the need to reach out to your individual group. Sunday school is such a neat way of living out Titus 2!

Sunday school is a place to belong – when you’re not there, people notice, because they genuinely miss you! When Sunday school class members are checking on each other throughout the week – “hey, I missed you on Sunday; are you doing ok?” – the chance of people never getting reached out to is much less. This mutual concern and care for people in the class helps the church in its entirety be more effective.

A fun bonus: some Sunday school classes make food part of their plan every week! Perhaps the ladies take turns making something, or maybe your teacher just grabs a dozen donuts on the way to church. Sometimes a fresh cup of coffee during Sunday school can help a person be fully awake in time for the preaching hour. 🙂 Does your class not do any food? Ask your teacher if you can bring something next week and see how excited he will get!

Making the commitment to be at Sunday school is an amazing opportunity for you to trust God to grow your heart spiritually. There are many more things that are a plus when it comes to Sunday school – can you name one? Share them in the comments below!

 

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